The Stranger in his Hospital Room
by courderouge2006
Summary: After the surgery to remove his tumor, Booth woke up and asked Bones a question. A very important question. How will this affect the team, and more importantly Bones and Booth themselves? Season 4.


My first oneshot attempt at Bones fanfiction. Hope you enjoy, reviews always appreciated. I own none of the characters.

* * *

"Who are you?"

* * *

Angelia finally found Temperance on the 12th floor, staring out the window of the waiting room at the end of the hall.

"Bren?"

There was no movement.

"Brennan? What's wrong? The doctor isn't saying anything, you're on Booth's contact list, none of us are. Is he awake? Is he ok? You just ran past us, what's wrong?"

Still, no movement.

Shaking her head, Angelia moved closer, her hand up to touch Brennan's shoulder.

"Who am I?"

The voice was so low Angelia could barely make it out. "What did you say Bren?"

She didn't turn. "He doesn't know me."

Angelia stepped closer, her hand on Brennan's arm, turning her slowly to face her. "Who doesn't know you? What are you talking about?"

Brennan was staring down at the floor, her eyes shut tightly. Finally looking up, she slowly cracked them open. "Booth doesn't know who I am."

Angelia was shocked, both at the look of her friends eyes and the news she had just heard. "Wh-what? How can that be? Are you sure he wasn't just confused?"

Wiping her eyes, Brennan shook her head. Sitting down, she rubbed both hands over her face. "He doesn't have any idea who I am. He doesn't remember. The surgery, it did something to his memory, he's blank."

Angelia's eyes went even wider. "Give me a minute sweety, ok?"

She didn't give Brennan time to react before she was gone, rushing toward Booth's room and ignoring the questions from the others as she passed. Bursting through the door, she stared at the groggy man. "Do you know me?"

Staring and trying to focus his eyes, he nodded. "Angelia. What's going on, what's the problem?"

Exhaling, she smiled slightly. "Brennan said you didn't recognize her, I thought… I was worried you had amnesia or something. You know, forgetting your name, your job and all of that." She sat down next to his bed, patting his hand softly. "It's good to see you're alright Booth."

He nodded. "Yea, I was pretty worried coming in. Has anyone told Parker and Rebecca that I came out of surgery ok?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure, I'll make sure they find out though, don't worry. Hodges and Cam are outside, they were worried about you too. The doctors haven't given us an update since we got here, and Brennan disappeared in a hurry after she called to tell us you were awake."

He nodded slightly, wincing at the pain moving his head gave him. "I'm glad you guys are here." He squeezed her hand gently, then tilted his head. "By the way, who's Brennan? A new intern?"

* * *

Angelia finally found her on a completely different floor, staring out another window. "Sweety, you seriously need to carry your cell if you're going to keep running around the floors like this." She handed Brennan a styrofoam cup filled with what the cafeteria here passed off as tea. "I brought you something."

Taking it with a soft nod, Brennan took a sip, not even noticing the taste. She just kept staring out the window in front of her. "Did you see him?"

Pulling her to a couch, Angelia nodded. "Yes, we've all been in to see him."

"Has anything come back to him? Does he remember anyone?"

Her eyes closing for a few moments, Angelia sighed, touching her friend's hand again. "He remembers me. And Hodgins. And Cam. And he asked us to call Parker and Rebecca to make sure they knew he woke up."

Brennan looked up with a small smile. "He doesn't have amnesia, he remembers us?"

Angelia tried not to let it show on her face. "He… he remembers some of us, Brennan." The look that crossed her friend's face broke her heart. "He remembers his job, and his days in the Rangers, and the case at the winery. He remembers his career and just about everything…"

"Except me."

Closing her eyes again, she could only nod gently. "I'm so sorry sweety."

Brennan set the cup down, shaking her head. "Don't be. He remembers his job, and his family, that's the most important thing. He will be back handling cases in no time. That's the important thing." Forcing a smile, she turned to Angelia. "Who's with him now?"

"He asked for Sweets to see about how long he'd need to be on the DL before he can get back to work for the Bureau."

Brennan's smile faltered just slightly, but she recovered. "He remembers Sweets. That's… good. That's really good, Sweets looks up to Booth, as much as he refuses to see it." She stood quickly, walking at a brisk pace down the hall.

Angelia jumped up to follow her. "Brennan, where are you going?"

"Back to the office, I'm sure there are some remains I need to catch up on since I've spent most of my time here lately." She pressed the elevator call button, her arms crossed, the tap of her foot the only noise in the mostly empty hallway.

"Brennan, maybe you should talk to…"

"No, he's busy with Booth, I'll only be in the way. Call me if anything changes." She almost ran into the elevator when it showed up, hitting the door close button immediately and shutting Angelia off, leaving her in the hallway, staring sadly at the closed doors.

"It'll be ok, Bren. Somehow, I know it will be ok."

* * *

Staring at the skeletal remains on the table in front of her, Dr. Brennan shifted one of the ribs slightly before she leaned further over the table. "Did you make note of the stress fractures at the shared point of the C3 and C4 vertebrae?"

Mr. Nigel-Murray nodded. "Yes Dr. Brennan. Little known fact, only about 15% of all spinal injuries are due to actual violence. The largest cause is actually automobile accidents."

Ignoring his trivia addendum, Dr. Brennan picked up the skull, handling it gently as she turned it. "Impact dimpling near the rear of the crown of the skull."

Mr. Nigel-Murray nodded as he made another notation on the file. "Little known fact…"

"If it does not pertain to the reason for this particular impact dimpling, I don't want to hear about it." She turned slightly to look at him, her eyes showing no room for argument.

He nodded quickly. "Sorry Dr. Brennan. I was merely trying to keep focus, instead of thinking about… other… things."

Sighing softly, she nodded. "Understandable. Do measurements on the affected areas and make sure Hodgins gets any trace to start working on immediately." She set the skull down gently and made her way off the evidence deck and into her office. Sitting at her desk, it took several moments for her to realize she wasn't alone. Glancing to her couch, she saw Sweets sitting quietly and watching her with his intent stare. "Can I help you?"

He shook his head. "I simply wanted to see how you were doing Dr. Brennan. I know the last week has been very stressful for you."

She nodded. "We do have a large back log on cases coming in, Agent Perotta is keeping up fairly well but she's not as used to working cooperatively with our institute."

"Dr. Brennan, that's not what I was referring to."

Taking a deep breath, she still didn't glance up to him. "Do you think I don't realize that, Sweets?"

"Well, you were sidestepping the issue, and we both know that's not going to help the situation much. "

Setting her pen down, Dr. Brennan rubbed her fingers along the bridge of her nose and sighed loudly. "I don't want to talk about it."

Sweets snorted. "Well, that's a shock, honestly. You're usually so forthcoming in our sessions, mostly about how my life's ambition is useless witchcraft."

"No, actually psychology is less reputable than witchcraft, especially in many rural aboriginal civilizations," she informed him, finally looking back up.

Sweets simply nodded, a small smile on his face. "Well once again, I have to say that if you're so adamant against speaking with me, you need to talk to someone Dr. Brennan."

"There is nothing I need to speak with anyone about, I am fine Sweets."

Standing, he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I still don't know how it's so easy for both of you to be this stubborn and adamant that you're right and everyone else must be wrong. Yet you still can't see what everyone else knows to be true."

"And what might that be, _Doctor_?" He could hear the sarcasm she assigned to his title.

"That you and Booth are co-dependent. You haven't been the same since he woke up. At least when he was in the coma, you still had the memory of your old partnership in your mind and you weren't effected so badly. But now, you seem like someone took a part of you away, not just Booth. You're partners. You're more than partners, but now you're trying to pass it off and go about life like you were before he came into it, but Dr. Brennan, you know things aren't the same." He stepped closer to her desk on the last statement.

She huffed. "Nothing has changed. I'm still who I was, and he is still who he was. The fact we worked together for a few years doesn't change who we are. If he is no longer a part of my day, it won't affect me or my work."

Sweets reached out to her desk, taking away the file she had just picked up and tossed it onto the coffee table. "What is the main rule you forensic anthropologists have when you are studying a society?"

Dr. Brennan sighed. "You interact as little as possible so as not to affect the tribe and impose our own structures upon them."

He nodded. "So why is it you can accept that a person can have an effect on an entire society with very limited interaction from a distance, but you refuse to believe that one person can be changed by four years of close partnership and one on one interaction?"

Uncharacteristically, Dr. Brennan slammed her pen down before standing to look Sweets in the eye, her mouth opening in preparation for the diatribe to end all diatribes… but nothing came out. Her mouth closed slowly as her gaze softened, eyes darting around the room. Looking back at Sweets once more, she simply nodded before she slid out of her lab coat. Grabbing her bag, she left her office quickly without a word, not saying anything on her way out even as Cam tried to talk to her.

Rushing into the office, Cam stared at Sweets. "What was that about? She looked like she saw a ghost?"

He could only chuckle. "Maybe the ghost of all her certainties and absolutes as they finally fell from the highest perch on the highest mountain."

Cam could only stare at him. "Either you did something very good, or something verrrrrry bad. Let me know how that turns out for you." She rushed out of the office, letting the door swing shut slowly behind her.

Sweets smiled once more as he made his way to the door, stopping just before he pulled it open, her words lingering in his thoughts. "Wait… what do you mean bad? Dr. Saroyan, how could that go bad?" he shouted, running across the floor behind her.

* * *

Seeley Booth was sitting in the hospital bed, flipping between a hockey game and the latest updates on ESPN. He was tired of this bed, of this sterile hospital. "Just give me something to break the boredom, anything," he begged of the ceiling, rubbing a hand over his stubbled face.

The door was suddenly pulled open, forcibly. Looking down, he saw her, the woman who was here when he woke up. She stepped closer to the bed slowly, staring him in the eyes. "What's my name?"

His eyes narrowed. "Dr. Temperance Brennan."

Her face tightened, eyes shutting tightly as she looked to be in pain almost. "No. No no no!"

He pushed himself up in the bed slightly. "That's what Angelia told me the other day, your name is Temperance Brennan, you're a forensic doctor at the Jeffersonian, one of the people I work with on cases."

Her hands clenched at her coat as her voice strained. "That is my name, but that's not your name for me, that's not what you call me."

"Why wouldn't I call you by your name?"

"I don't know! You've never called me by my real name, even when I have asked you repeatedly." She rubbed a hand over her face, sniffling quietly.

"Well what do I call you?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter apparently." She turned towards the door again, taking a step before her legs almost faltered beneath her.

He swung his feet over the edge. "Hey, do you need to sit down Temperance?"

"Don't call me that." Her voice was barely a whisper.

He was thoroughly confused, and his expression showed it. "Dr. Brennan?"

"Don't… call… me… that."

He threw his hands up. "Then what am I supposed to call you?"

She turned slowly, and he wasn't prepared for the look on her face. Her eyes were red and watery, her lip quivering. "Call me what you always call me. Use my name, Booth."

He stepped closer, his hands moving to her arms and gripping gently. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you want me to say."

The slight control she had over her emotions faltered. Pressing a hand to her mouth to cover the sob, she grabbed the bed for support. "What's wrong with me?"

He could only shrug. "I don't know what you mean."

"Why don't you remember me? You remember everyone else. You remember Angelia, and Hodgins, and Sweets. You remember Wendell, and you've only been around him either through me or on your hockey team. Do you remember Zack?"

He nodded. "Addy right? Smart kid, but way too impressionable, helped the cannibal."

"So what's wrong with me? Am I not special enough? Am I so unimportant in your life Booth? Does none of it mean anything?"

He tried to move closer, but she stepped back, holding her hand between them. "No, answer my question."

He licked at his lips, eyes darting around the room before settling back on hers. "I really don't know what to say here. I have no idea why I can't remember, but I can't, I'm sorry!"

"Why the hell not?!? We were partners! Every day, you've been there, and I've been there. We've worked so many cases, we've stopped so many bad people. And you don't remember any of it! You don't remember 5 steamboats, or tofu instead of spare ribs, or testifying against my father?"

He could only shake his head.

She stepped back again. "You taught me to ice skate. You made me sing karaoke. You took a bullet for me! You shouldn't have but you had to be Booth and jump in front of me, and then fake your death and not tell me about it so you could catch some fugitive. You took a bullet for me." Her voice was breaking as her fingertips brushed over his abdomen, touching the spot she had memorized from her nightmares.

He lowered his face, and shook his head. "I'm sorry."

She turned away from him, trying to fight back the tears but losing the fight. "I see. It's… it's not important. You remember Parker and your job, that's important. You're perfectly fine, considering what you went through. A little bit of collateral damage can be expected when you're dealing with brain tumors." She sniffed again, trying to fix herself up.

His head snapped up suddenly, staring at her back. "What did you say?"

She turned back to him. "Brain tumors. It's not unheard of for some things to be affected after the stress that can be experienced between the tumor's growth and then the removal." She reached onto the chair for her bag, digging through it for her keys.

Booth rubbed his hand over his face, something was just under the surface there. "Brain… brain… brainy."

Taking one more deep breath, she stepped in closer, her hand cupping his cheek. "It's… it's still good to have you back Booth." She kissed his other cheek softly and turned, quickly leaving the hospital room, leaving a confused Seeley Booth behind.

His hands moved up, touching both cheeks still warm from her touch. "Brainy. She's Brainy." His face suddenly split into a grin. "She's Brainy." He pulled the sensors from his finger and arms, then his chest before he ran out of the room, looking down the hall just in time to see her go into the elevator. "Hey!" He ran as quickly as he could, his body straining after being bedridden for so long.

Seeing the shut doors by the time he reached them, he took off for the stairs, slamming the door open and rushing down 8 flights of stairs as fast as he could, fighting the ache in his muscles.

Dr. Brennan had almost made it to her car halfway across the lot when she heard a commotion, not paying any attention to it. Her instincts told her to get to a safe place before she investigated. Hitting the unlock button on her keychain, she had her fingers on the door handle.

"BONES!"

Her body froze as her heart was hammering in her chest, afraid to even think that it might be possible. She turned slowly, her eyes shut tight, afraid her own mind was playing tricks on her. When she finally opened them, she saw Booth slowing to a stop several yards away still, breathing hard. "What.. you shouldn't be out of your room, you're still in recovery."

"You're not Smurfette, you're Brainy."

If possible her eyes went even wider. "What did you say?"

He slowly stepped closer. "You're not stupid or shallow. You have your looks and a whole lot more. You're better than Smurfette."

Her legs gave way and she fell against her car, clinging to it so she wouldn't fall. He moved quickly, pulling her closer. "Are you ok Bones?"

She let a surprised sob slip through between her lips, her eyes brightening instantly. "You remember?"

He nodded. "Everything. But you were wrong about something."

She looked into his eyes, slightly confused.

Brushing her hair out of her face, he leaned in closer. "It wasn't five Steamboats."

She wasn't able to argue with him. Booth closed the final distance, pressing his lips to hers softly. Brennan's arms slid around his neck, clinging tightly to the man, to her lifeline as the kiss grew heated.

The need for oxygen broke them apart many steamboats later, as Booth rested his forehead to hers, his lips curved into a smile.

Brennan smiled back at him, her hands cupping his face before she suddenly pulled back, slapping his chest.

Booth stepped back. "Ow. Bones, what the hell?"

"Don't you ever do that to me again! You forgot me!"

"Come on Bones, I had a brain tumor. I couldn't control whatever happened to me. Oww, stop hitting me, I'm still in the hospital!"

She pointed her finger at him, a stern look on her face. "Technically you left the hospital, so you can't use that to hide behind. But you shouldn't be out here, you just had surgery on your brain, what are you doing running out of your room like that?"

He stared at her. "It seemed pretty important that I get to you quickly."

She sighed, wrapping her arm around his and walking back toward the entrance. "You need to be in bed. You can't just leave the hospital like that, you're very susceptible right now so soon after that degree of surgery."

Booth wanted to argue but he knew it was pointless. Sighing, he kept his mouth shut as he walked back to the hospital entrance with her. "Damn squint know-it-alls."

She smiled against his arm, her head leaned against his shoulder. "The sooner you accept it, the better."

Booth would have repaid the earlier slap, albeit much more gently, if his free hand wasn't busy holding his hospital gown closed. "Maybe they did do something wrong up there in the surgery. I should ask the doc to go back in and fix anything they might have nudged."

"No no, you're scans came out fine. No more messing around with your brain. I'm not taking any chances again."

Booth chuckled softly, pressing his lips to Brennan's hair as they walked. "If you say so, Bones."

The quiet walk was broken just before they went into the hospital with a loud smack as Booth jumped, both hands holding the gown closed behind him. "Hey! That is improper fraternization between partners. I could bring up a complaint through the bureau."

Brennan smiled, leaning up to quickly kiss his cheek again before she turned to walk through the doors. "Worth it."

Booth watched her walk inside, a spring in her step he hadn't noticed before. As he rubbed his wounded… pride, he gulped. "Oh god, what did I get myself into here?"


End file.
